My teeth and smile have always been a rough spot for me, which is kind of a major problem because as an Actor and Make-up Artist my smile is on display constantly. I desperately needed braces as a kid to fix my cross bite, but my parents response was that my teeth would just fix themselves as I grew up. FUN FACT: Teeth don’t just fix themselves. You DEFINITELY need braces to get rid of a cross bite. Lol. Another thing that bothers me? YELLOW TEETH. They gross me the heck out. I knew someone growing up who had teeth so yellow and brown it looked like their teeth were rotting out of their head. It was terrifying to me as a kid. I vowed to never let that happen to me. If I couldn’t get braces just yet to fix my cross bite the least I could do is make sure they were healthy and white.

The problem? I have the most sensitive teeth on the planet. Seriously. I don’t know anyone else with more sensitive teeth than me. It’s kind of a nightmare. They’re sensitive just on the regular. So much so that I remember as a kid having to brush my teeth with Sensodyne. SENSODYNE. It was like I was 100 instead of 10. Regardless, my fear of yellow teeth never dissipated so here I was, with my overly sensitive teeth, constantly attempting different ways to whiten them without experiencing the crippling-migraine-inducing-pain of extremely sensitive teeth. I was definitely in a pickle.

I felt like I had already tried everything that I could that wasn’t exorbitantly priced. I never got my teeth whitened at the dentist for obviou$ rea$on$. I only ever did at home remedies. I tried out Crest White strips. And holy smokes. Those things are the worst. First of all, they don’t stay in place AT ALL. Those suckers slide around the second you “stick” them to your teeth. Secondly, they made my teeth super sensitive. And honestly, they’re not that cheap. I definitely feel like they’re waaay overpriced. Crest Whitestrips: I hate those things. Next, I continued on my journey for white teeth with whitening toothpastes. I tried out a TON over the years and had never actually found one that really did anything until I tried Colgate Optic White this past year.

This is the only toothpaste I use now. It actually really does work. It’s kind of amazing. And it doesn’t make my teeth sensitive at all. Mind-blowing. I know. BYE BYE SENSODYNE. SEE YOU NEVER. The only thing that still bothered me was that I was never able to get the “crevices” in my teeth to whiten enough, if at all. Even with my whitening toothpaste. So I was looking around trying to figure out what to do next when Smile Brilliant contacted me and offered to let me try out their whitening kit. UM. YES? Seriously they couldn’t have had more perfect timing. I let them know of my history with super sensitive teeth and they had a solution! They have a sensitive teeth kit that includes desensitizing gels. My saviour.

The whitening gel is the orange one on top and the desensitizing gel is the purple one on the bottom.

When you receive your whitening kit you get 2 plastic trays that you fill with the putty that you’ll need to mash together to make your mold. The instructions are extremely straight forward and it comes with picture diagrams so you really can’t mess this up.

After making your molds of your teeth you ship them in the prepaid shipping envelope enclosed in your kit. Super easy.

When the lab receives your molds they’ll let you know they’ve received them and if anything needs to be redone they’ll assist you with that. My molds were perfectly fine so I didn’t have to do it again! Score. See even with a messed up cross bite and jibs like mine your molds will be fine.

Once you get your plastic molds back, you’re ready to start whitening your teeth! The process is super easy. For me it was a much longer process than it would be for a regular person with little to no sensitivity. I had to use the desensitizing gel for 2-3 days alone just to prep for the whitening. And then the day of whitening my teeth I would use the desensitizing gel for 30-45 minutes before whitening. Then I would whiten for 45 mins. And after I would use desensitizing gel again for 30-45 mins. After you use the desensitizing gel you can’t eat or drink for about an hour afterward. And you can’t brush your teeth or anything because you want the desensitizing gel to stay on for as long as possible. So when you take your trays out after desensitizing for the final time after whitening your teeth you just spit the excess gel out and let your teeth chill. DON’T BRUSH YOUR TEETH AFTER USING THE DESENSITIZING GEL. You’re supposed to brush your teeth after whitening them. This is why it’s best to do it at night right before bed, which is when I always whitened my teeth during this process. Because it was a PROCESS, especially for me. Since it would take me 2.5 hours to whiten my teeth I would just put on some Netflix or read a graphic novel and wait for my timer to go off.

They say people with little to no sensitivity can whiten for 45 mins-3 hours a day. Every day. In my head I’m like 3 HOURS?! LOL! HOW?!? But seriously, it usually only takes 7-14 days to get the results you want. So for a person with little to no sensitivity problems it could take them just a week or two tops to get the results they want. I could only do 45 minutes of whitening every few days because even with the desensitizing gel my teeth were sensitive after. I would wake up with sensitive teeth and have to use the desensitizing gel just to get on with my day. Let me tell you though, if I didn’t have the desensitizing gel I don’t think I could have done this at all. It definitely helps. I did a day where I didn’t do the desensitizing gel before whitening. I only did it after. And the next day I didn’t use it at all and maaan could I feel it. My teeth were way too sensitive. So if you’re like me, you’ll definitely need to use it as often as I did. I promise you. It really does help.

Another tip – use less gel than you think you need. If you use too much, especially the whitening gel, it will leak out of your trays and possibly bother your gums. So if you can taste the whitening gel, use less next time.

My teeth were already pretty white to begin with thanks to my handy dandy toothpaste, but because I’m an avid coffee drinker I feel like they definitely needed a more intense whitening to really get the deep stains out. And like I said before, the crevices of my teeth never seemed to get lighter which was bothering me. I was actually surprised to find that my problem with that was finally solved with this whitening kit! I only did 7 whitening sessions over about a month because of my sensitivity, but I think the results were exactly what I wanted… especially since I didn’t want to end up like Ross from friends:

These were my results:

Overall I’d say this was a total success! If you want to whiten your teeth I’d genuinely suggest using Smile Brilliant’s whitening kit. The only downside would be possible sensitivity if you’re like me, and having to hold off on drinking coffee for 48 hours between whitening sessions. This is because if you drink or eat anything that will stain your teeth within that time frame, like coffee, you may stain your teeth even worse than they already were since the pores of your teeth with be open for that period of time. It’s a bummer, but that was the worst part honestly, so if you’re in the market to whiten your teeth I’d say go for this. It’s your best bet to really get the deep whitening you want at a more affordable price. I’ll definitely be purchasing the whitening and desensitizing gels from Smile Brilliant the next time I want to do a touch-up whitening.